I’m looking at the Felt DA as a TT bike. I love the way it looks, and it fits me perfectly. I have never owned a felt, or have heard from owners about the quality of the bike.
Is felt a high quality bike company? probably not as nice as pinarello, time or colnago. But are they the same quality as a Cervelo, or Trek?
Hmm. such a broad question it is a bit tough to answer specifically.
I sell Felt brand bicycles, have since the company started. I have a bit of a “family” relationship with them since I am close friends with members of their upper management.
I’ve seen Felt evolve from a one-off, full custom, one-at-a-time hand made race only frame manufacturer to a full-fledged bicycle company. During this evolution the company grew in two directions simultaneously: Up toward levels of technology (such as we see in the DA and the B2 and F1) they had previously not acheived and then downward in terms of price point toward value oriented bikes such as the F75 road bike, a nice entry level road bike for about $1400.
The central theme to Felt since day one has been repeatable, dependable frame manufacture. Component spec aside (and Felt’s is generally very good) the only truly unique thing about Felt is their frames. Most Felt frames are made for Felt by proprietary third party vendors (read: Taiwan) that have a proven track record for high quality, repeatable manufacturing. Our experience with Felt has been about two broken frames out of a few thousand frames sold over the years. That is enviable.
You make some interesting comparisonos to Colango and Pinarello. Totally different companies from Felt. I would say Felt’s quality is higher and certainly more repeatable than a Colango or Pinarello. Heck, Colango’s $2500ish bikes (Arte’?) are made in Taiwan and have very typical component spec- you can buy a comparably spec’d bike with very similar frame materials from Felt for about $1800.
In general, I would put Felt’s quality very, very high relative to the manufacturers you mention. We wouldn’t have bought them if they weren’t.
Four years ago I got a Felt F70. Very entry level bike. 105 build. I got it when I was new to cycling, thinking eventually I may upgrade.
Fast forward four years and now I have a dedicated Cervelo TT bike and keep the Felt as my road bike/all purpose/crappy weather bike. I figure over the four years I’ve put 25000 miles on the bike and the frame is still going strong. Never creaks or makes noises. No cracks. Granted, the components have started craping out, but that’s what components do. The Felt frame itself is outstanding.
And what impresses me more is that the F70 is by no means Felt’s ‘top of the line’ bike. Its their entry level bike priced at an entry level price. And it works wonderfully.
I would have no hesitations buying another Felt. I’ve got friends riding high end Felts, and they have no compliants either.
I’ll sort of second the post by Tom. While I’m not sure of the exact tools Felt uses for engineering their bikes, I do believe they have the talent to use just about anything. I do know some engineers (of competing bike companies) who know the Felt engineers and have nothing but positive reviews about them.
Regarding Pinarello, Time, Colnago, Trek, etc…I will also mention that I would easily place Cervelo, possibly Trek, and maybe Time far ahead of Pinarello and Colnago when it comes to the quality of their CARBON bikes. I make this differentiation because carbon is a different world, and just because you perfect 100 years of making bikes with metal tubes, it has absolutely NO bearing on your experience/capabilities with carbon. Again, I don’t know the guys at Felt, but other composites engineers seem to think they know their stuff, and I trust those engineers.
If I had to rate based on carbon experience, I’d probably go:
I’d probably put Felt somewhere in the top 3.
I agree with you but think colnago have been making carbon bikes for a very long time. I THINK the first carbon tdf bike was a C40 (someone’ll tell me if I’m wrong)
I have owned numerous Felt’s in the past (see www.feltmafia.com). I have owned an S22, and B2 previously. I have an F4c and an RXC mountain bike right now.
I have had nothing but good experiences with the frames and company, not to mention the value I think I get from the bike and components.
Anyway, I think it’s a great brand. I just wish their new Virtue series was a bit cheaper…
Craig,
You’re wrong.
Love,
Mac
Wow Mac, I’m impressed. You actually spelled “you’re” correctly!
You must be moving up in the world 
If you ever have any specific questions about Felt don’t hesitate to send me a PM or email. Of course I’m biased so I’ll save Dan’s bandwidth here. I will say I’ve worked for Colnago, Orbea, Ritchey, Ciocc, DeBernardi, Casati, Coppi, and Boeris bicycle manufacturers or distributors in the past and have tremendous admiration for what they do, but to put a $7250 bike up against another $7000+ bike in this industry and attempt to find significant differences in quality is tough. It is much too tough a market to make a $7000 bike and sell it sucessfully without also building it to the highest of standards.
Regards,
Dave Koesel
ROAD Brand Manager
Felt Bicycles
I own three Felt bikes (all very good bikes) and may upgrade to an 07 tri bike soon so I was recently researching the '07 DA on the 'net. This guy has a few comments…
This is the internet…take it with a grain of salt.
I’ve got a first generation F1C (so @3yrs old) and I’ve never had anything go wrong with it. I’d previously ridden high end Treks before I made the switch to Felt and IMO the Felt is better in every way - ride quality, stiffness (particularly through the bottom bracket), weight etc. I’ve even managed to get my father in law to switch to a Felt after 15 years on another brand and he loves it. In terms of quality, it’s as good today as the day I bought it and will happily recommend them to everyone I know.
I won’t debate the merits of carbon technology and production techniques as there are others much more qualified than me to do this (unfortunately my geeky materials engineer brother-in-law is one of them…)
I wonder if this is even worth commenting on, but I would like to point out that our rear dropouts are made of aluminum, not carbon.
I find this comment particularly erroneous:
“** - Felt DA Gearhanger Fracture **
This problem is extremely serious and one that Felt deny, but it exists and has already caused injury. The gear hanger is made from carbon, unlike on other carbon bikes where manufacturers have opted for a metal, presumably in and effort to save a few more grammes. Unfortunately this thin expanse of carbon fractured catastrophically allowing the derailleur to fall into the wheels…”
I dealt with this failure, and still deny that our rear dropouts are made of carbon.
-SD
dave, is this true?
even with no seat, there is a noticable ‘angling’ of the seatpost (and the seat rails) to one side or another?
is this a frame mold problem, or a seatpost problem?
I’ve never seen this and while the photo appears telling, I’m looking at a number of frames here in the office and all of them are dead center. There is no +/- tolerance for the seatpost alignment. The rear portion of the seat clamp is removable so if there is ever any thread damage the frame isn’t ruined, just a $10 clamp. Like common removeable handlebar stem clamps, if the bolts are not tightened evenly left to right and to the correct torque, the sharply pointed portion of the rear clamp can twist the seatpost ever so slightly in the frame toward the overtight side. I suspect this clamp is not installed correctly. Addtionally, the torque required to hold the post in place is very low. If a heavy handed mechanic or owner exceeds the recommended torque, the clamp can fail, and by design, the frame’s integrity should be preserved.
Again, I’m not even sure this deserves a rebuttal.
Regards,
-SD
I’ve only seen about 5-6 up close, and never noticed anything of the sort. Those photos show the seat being WAY off center, I think I would have oticed that on one I saw…
Why does this guy put all this effort into this, creating a website, domain etc. Makes you wonder…
"This site and the author are in no way affiliated with, associated with or approved or endorsed by Felt Bicycles or any of their agents. … "
Really??
Without seeing the bike its hard to make a definitive answer, but I would take the bike to a frame biulder. Bikes aren’t voodoo. Either something on the frame is bent or misaligned or your problem is with the components. If a bike shop can’t make it work properly they should be able to tell you why, i.e the dropouts aren’t aligned.
Styrrell
thanks. expanation makes sense.
but, respectfully, from a customer service perspective, i would say you are mistaken. every customer complaint deserves a rebuttal.
and it is not who is right or who is wrong, it is just that a rep of the company takes the time and care to answer a legitimate or crazy complaint or concern. *that *kind of action wins loyal customers, and lots of 'em …
You obviously don’t work for any branch of the government!!
Again, I know who this person is who has developed this site. It is obvious he is unhappy, and like a previous poster said, “this is the internet, take it with a grain of salt.”
Things like carbon rear dropouts that don’t exist and loose handlebar tape probably don’t require anything but clarification, but the alignment issues addressed simply don’t appear with any QC check of our frames and I invite the discussion of his claims and would be happy to offer explanation and countless examples of the contrary.
Regards,
-SD